The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe believe the TARDIS has brought them back to
Earth, in the midst of World War One. But it soon becomes apparent that
they are nowhere of the sort. In fact, a race of aliens has been
kidnapping soldiers from various points in the Earth's history and
transporting them to another planet, with the intention of using them to
form the greatest army the universe has ever seen. At the helm of this
plot is the War Chief, a renegade Time Lord like the Doctor. To stop him,
the Doctor may be forced to call upon his own people and give up his
wandering in time and space forever.

Production

The story originally intended to bear the designation of Serial ZZ was
“The Impersonators”, the storyline for which was commissioned
on July 5th, 1968. The author of this six-part adventure was Malcolm
Hulke, who had cowritten The Faceless Ones
with David Ellis two years earlier. About a month later, Patrick Troughton
informed the Doctor Who production team that he wanted to leave the
show at the end of the next recording block. It was therefore decided that
“The Impersonators” would be Troughton's penultimate
story.

The era of the Second Doctor would then conclude with a four-part Serial
AAA, to be written by Derrick Sherwin. Sherwin was in the process of
handing over the script editor's job to Terrance Dicks while taking over
the producer's duties from Peter Bryant. Sherwin's story seems to have
been planned from around October 1968, with Troughton contracted for these
final four episodes on November 4th. It was also known that Frazer Hines
would be leaving Doctor Who at the same time, but Bryant and
Sherwin hoped to persuade Wendy Padbury to remain for Season Seven. The
new year would not only see Doctor Who broadcast in colour for the
first time, but would also feature a new format in which the Doctor was
marooned on modern-day Earth. This was inspired by the recent success of
stories such as The Web Of Fear and The Invasion, and Sherwin's serial would
establish the new status quo.

The War Games would set up the
new format for Season Seven and introduce the Doctor's own race, the
Time Lords

Unfortunately, as 1968 drew to a close, it appears that problems were
developing with both “The Impersonators” and Sherwin's story.
In November, it was decided to instead conclude Season Six with a mammoth
ten-part Serial ZZ -- the longest story attempted by Doctor Who
since the twelve-episode The Daleks' Master
Plan three years earlier. “The Impersonators” was
formally abandoned on December 30th, but by this time, Hulke had already
been asked to collaborate with Terrance Dicks on the new season finale.
Called The War Games, this was commissioned on December 23rd. It
was planned that, in addition to setting up the new format for Season
Seven, The War Games would shed light on the Doctor's origins by
introducing his own race, the Time Lords. Troughton's imminent departure
was announced to the press on January 7th, 1969.

With production due to begin in less than three months, Dicks and Hulke
worked extremely quickly on The War Games, yet only a few minor
changes ended up being made to their scripts. Amongst these, Spencer and
other, unnamed resistance fighters were intended to die in the alien
attack in part five. Also in this episode, Zoe originally misidentified
the meaning of TARDIS as “Time And Relative Dimensional
Intergalactic Ship”. Von Weich was to have been shot trying to
escape at the end of the installment, and Jennifer Buckingham was present
when Jamie and the others were ambushed. By the time part six was
delivered, however, it had already been decided that Jennifer would not be
included in the second half of the story.

In episode seven, Smythe's aide was initially a new character called
Sergeant Wilkins; only latterly was the decision made to bring back
Sergeant Major Burns from the first installment. The script for part eight
implied that the alien race controlling the Zones was collectively called
the War Lords -- an identification not made in the completed programme --
and also included a line of dialogue in which the Doctor asserts that
there are multiple time-travelling civilisations. In part nine, the Doctor
defined the Time Lords as being the leaders of his race. Episode ten
included a prominent role for an unseen Time Lord judge, most of whose
dialogue was later allocated to the First Time Lord. The means of the
time travellers' last-ditch attempt to escape from their Time Lord
sentence was also different. Rather than verbally duping the Time Lord
into switching off the force field, the Doctor and Jamie took advantage of
a weakening of the barrier near the floor to push Zoe through, enabling
her to turn off the field.

On February 24th, it was announced that Wendy Padbury
would be leaving Doctor Who with her
co-stars

By now, it was known that Padbury would in fact be leaving Doctor
Who alongside Troughton and Hines at the conclusion of The War
Games. On January 27th, she was booked for her final serial, and the
public was informed of her decision on February 24th. Meanwhile, David
Maloney -- who had recently completed The
Krotons -- was appointed the director of The War Games. It
was Maloney who suggested that the alien mesmerism should be manifested by
the officers putting on spectacles; Dicks and Hulke had originally
conceived them as speaking in a cold “alien voice” when
exercising the mind control. It was also Maloney who came up with the
sequence in which the Doctor sends his plea to the Time Lords in a small
box, and who suggested war settings which would be interesting to the
viewers after seeking advice from his young son.

Because of the length of The War Games, two weeks of filming were
necessary rather than the standard one. However, with the studio sessions
for each episode scheduled to take place just over a week prior to
broadcast, this meant that the extra filming would have to occur during
the week in which the final installment of the previous story, The Space Pirates, was in studio. As a result,
Troughton, Hines and Padbury had to prefilm all their scenes for that
episode.

Filming for Serial ZZ began on March 23rd, with the start of four days at
the Sheepcote Rubbish Tip in Brighton, East Sussex; this posed as the No
Man's Land, as well as the Scottish locale to which Jamie was returned by
the Time Lords in part ten. Amongst the cast joining The War Games
at this point was Derrick Sherwin's wife, Jane Sherwin, playing Lady
Jennifer Buckingham. The venue on March 27th was the Seven Sisters Country
Park at Exceat in Seaford, East Sussex, where the Roman Zone material was
enacted. On the 28th, Underhill Lane in Clayton, West Sussex was the
locale for the episode four scenes in which Jamie and Jennifer are
captured by the Confederate soldiers.

After a day off, work resumed on March 30th at locations in West Dean,
East Sussex for various roadway scenes. More of these were completed the
next day, at High Park Farm in Exceat and at Underhill Lane. Finally,
Birling Manor Farm in East Dean was the setting of material in the chateau
courtyard, the prison and the Crimean Zone. On April 3rd, a day was spent
at the Ealing Television Film Studios; amongst the effects completed was
the shot of the Doctor's face on the Time Lord screen -- splitting up,
spiralling and eventually fading away -- which would conclude the
Troughton era.

Part one was the first Doctor
Who episode for which Derrick Sherwin was credited as
producer

Studio recording began on April 11th. The initial four episodes were
recorded on consecutive Fridays, with the first five installments all
taped in Doctor Who's regular home of Television Centre Studio 4.
Amongst the characters referred to (but not seen) in part one was a Major
Ellis, whom Hulke had named after his writing partner on The Faceless Ones. This would also be the first
Doctor Who episode for which Sherwin received a producer's credit;
with Dicks having coauthored the serial, no script editor would be
listed.

Starting with part five on May 8th, the recording day was shifted back to
Thursday. Then, for episode six on May 15th, recording moved to TC8. The
role of Private Moor in this installment appears to have written expressly
for Patrick Troughton's son David, who had previously had an uncredited
appearance on The Enemy Of The World.

Meanwhile, Bryant and Sherwin were attempting to find a new actor to play
the Doctor. They originally considered Ron Moody, who had played Fagin in
the 1968 feature film Oliver!. Bryant and Sherwin thought that a
similar type of character might be appropriate for the Third Doctorm but
Moody turned down the role. BBC Head of Drama Shaun Sutton approached
Stratford Johns, who was best-known for playing Charlie Barlow in Z
Cars and Softly Softly: Task Force. Johns, however, feared
that Doctor Who would be too strenuous and declined.

Shortly thereafter, however, Bryant was contacted by Richard Stone, the
agent for character actor Jon Pertwee. Best known for his comedy roles,
Pertwee had appeared in dozens of movies, including several installments
of the Carry On franchise and A Funny Thing Happened On The
Way To The Forum, but was not a total stranger to more serious parts
-- at the time, he was preparing for a role in the Amicus horror film
The House That Dripped Blood, and he had previously recorded a
guest appearance in The Avengers. However, Pertwee was most
popular for the radio show The Navy Lark which he created and had
been starring in since 1959.

Although Pertwee's first wife, Jean Marsh, had appeared in Doctor
Who in 1965's The Crusade, it was fellow
Navy Lark actor Tenniel Evans who encouraged Pertwee to ask his
more dubious agent to inquire about playing the new Doctor. Much to
Pertwee's surprise, Stone informed him that he was already on Bryant's
shortlist. After meeting with BBC Head of Drama Shaun Sutton, Pertwee
agreed to a contract for Season Seven on May 21st, ensuring that he would
appear in at least twenty-one episodes of Doctor Who.

Since he had just appeared in The
Krotons, Philip Madoc grew a beard and wore thick glasses as the
War Lord

The day after, The War Games part seven was taped in TC1. Another
Doctor Who family connection was in evidence during this recording,
as Maloney had cast Peter Craze as Du Pont. Craze was the brother of
Michael Craze, who had played the Doctor's companion Ben Jackson during
Seasons Three and Four; Peter Craze had also appeared in The Space Museum. As the War Lord, Maloney cast
Philip Madoc, whom he had used on The
Krotons. To disguise the fact that he had only recently appeared
in Doctor Who, Madoc quickly grew a beard, and was given thick
glasses to wear.

The War Games continued to bounce between studios for its final
three installments: part nine was recorded in TC6, while the eighth and
tenth episodes went before the cameras in TC8. For the final episode,
taped on June 12th, Clare Jenkins returned to her role of Tanya Lernov
from The Wheel In Space for the scene where
Zoe is transported back home by the Time Lords. Several monsters also made
cameo appearances, including a Dalek, a Cyberman, an Ice Warrior, a Yeti
and a Quark; a Kroton was intended to feature, but the costume was found
to be in a state of disrepair. The Yeti was played by John Levene, who had
recently played Corporal Benton in The
Invasion.

Episode ten also saw the inclusion of two clips from
past serials: fifteen seconds of the TARDIS materialising on the sea from
Fury From The Deep part one and five seconds
of the Ship in space from The Web Of Fear
part one were both incorporated into the sequence where the Doctor tries
to flee from the Time Lords. An establishing shot of Space Station W3 from
the first installment of The Wheel In Space
was also used in the episode's closing stages.

The completion of The War Games brought both Season Six and the
sixth production block to an end; for the first time, no serials would be
taped at the end of the recording block and held over to start the next
season. Part ten was broadcast nine days later, on June 21st; this was in
the wake of the announcement made on the 17th that Jon Pertwee would play
the Third Doctor.

On June 17th it was announced that Jon Pertwee would play
the Third Doctor

Not long after leaving Doctor Who, Frazer Hines was cast as Joe
Sugden in the soap opera Emmerdale Farm. Hines remained on the
programme for twenty-two years until 1994, by which time it had become
known simply as Emmerdale. Nonetheless, he took up his kilt twice
more, playing Jamie in both The Five Doctors
and The Two Doctors. Hines has also recorded
linking narration for a number of BBC Audiobooks releases of incomplete
Doctor Who stories.

Wendy Padbury's career continued apace, with numerous roles on stage and
radio, in addition to TV appearances including Freewheelers and
alongside Hines in Emmerdale Farm. She also appeared in the horror
film Satan's Skin (also called Blood On Satan's Claw).
Amongst her theatrical appearances was the 1974 play Doctor Who And The
Daleks in Seven Keys To Doomsday, in which she played companion Jenny
to Trevor Martin's putative Fourth Doctor. Following her marriage in the
Seventies, Padbury divided her energies between her family and her career,
although she found time to return to Doctor Who as Zoe in The Five Doctors. Padbury largely gave up acting
in the early Nineties to become a theatrical agent, numbering amongst her
clients Nicholas Courtney, who played the Brigadier. Nonetheless, she
tackled the role of Lorraine Baynes in the Sixth Doctor audio drama
Davros from Big Finish Productions.

After his departure from Doctor Who, Patrick Troughton scarcely
found himself at a loss for work. He appeared in several feature films,
including The Omen with Gregory Peck and as the time-travelling
Professor Wagstaffe in A Hitch In Time. Troughton also garnered
numerous television roles in productions as varied as The Six Wives Of
Henry VIII, Coronation Street, The Box Of Delights and
Knights Of God. He made no less than three return appearances in
Doctor Who, in The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors and The
Two Doctors. He also harbored an ambition to secretly play a
monster in costume, but sadly this desire would go unfulfilled. Patrick
Troughton died on March 28th, 1987 of a heart attack in his hotel room
while attending a science-fiction convention in Columbus, Georgia. It was
one of many such events Troughton attended during the Eighties, during
which he demonstrated that -- despite his private and retiring personality
-- he harboured an abiding love for both Doctor Who and its
fans.